Jessica Marais hits the gym for a workout

Jessica Marais has been focused on her physical and mental health over the last few years.

On Wednesday, she shared several clips of herself to Instagram working out in the gym.

‘I’m practically pro!’ she captioned one clip, before following up with a video of herself skipping.

The 36-year-old looked fit in a pair of black leggings and a matching tank top and white sneakers.

Jessica penned a touching tribute to her late mother Karen and shared a stunning artwork she created in her memory ahead of Mother’s Day.

The Packed to the Rafters star shared the work on Instagram on Tuesday.

‘You will always be a tree of life dancing through the flames,’ Jessica wrote in her post, after her mother died in August last year. 

‘For Mum,’ Jessica’s post began. ‘Today, at the top of one hill, I saw what I thought were lots of tiny birds perched in the bare branches of a tree looking out to sea. 

‘They were actually burnt seedling bulbs at a second glance, but they were the shape of birds. And I wondered, does it matter?

‘Are they less beautiful or the picture less breathtaking now that I have adjusted my eyes and see the reality. Because what is still has a story and shape.’

Jessica said she was reminded of her mother when she saw the seedling bulbs.

‘They reminded me of when we used to talk about people trying to stomp out a memory. Of Plath’s cadaver poem, or our dreams of the Phoenix from the ashes. Or all the saddest parts of modern history. Or the very real way that death comes ‘unexpectedly’ (said in the fearsome preacher from Pollyanna’s bellowing voice).’ 

She added: ‘I tucked your memory into that moment and promise you will always be a tree of life dancing through the flames.

‘And right now I can hear a birdsong I know you would love x miss you.’

Jessica also painted a picture of her late mother holding her sister Clara. 

‘Oh this is so beautiful gooshy! And looks just like our mumma bear! Sending love,’ Clara commented below the post, and Jessica replied: ‘It’s her holding you!’

Jessica’s mother Karen died in August last year.

At the time, Jessica’s close friend Hugh Sheridan confirmed the heartbreaking news in an Instagram post.

‘I’m grieving for my dearest and sweetest friend, who has now lost both of her parents far too young,’ he wrote.

Jessica was just nine years old when she watched her father, university dean Tony Marais, collapse and die of a heart attack.  

In 2011, Jessica told News.com.au that she was haunted by her father’s death, and lived in fear of losing other loved ones in the same way.

But she credited her mother with helping the family ‘pull through a very hard time’.

The Logie winner added: ‘It’s sort of something you relive I think, everyone that has lost someone… you relive it every day. It feels fresh, but obviously time does heal a lot of wounds and I’m definitely much better at coping with it now.’